Ok, so I've been super busy the past couple weeks so I've been missing my updates. I rode Tues and Sat though (not today, my schedule didn't let me).
Tues started out decent which I was happy about because I was all set to try out my new lesson tricks, but then the dog from across the pond showed up and made me nervous which then got Pro antsy and well, it didn't get better really.
Saturday was basically the complete opposite. Pro started out in full "FU" mode. He wanted to ignore me right from the get-go. He was fine with me connecting my outside rein, but he really didn't want to yield his head/neck/poll when I asked with the inside rein. So we had several long bonding moments with the inside rein where I kept steady pressure on the outside rein and pulled his head around to the inside with an opening inside rein. After a couple of those he started to listen more so I did the shoulder softening trick (me softening/tugging with my inside shoulder, not particularly trying to soften his shoulder) he really relaxed into it and lifted his back and started mouthing the bit. We were on a 10m circle but I couldn't see us in the mirror so I asked him to stay soft and move the 10m circle over. He freaked out when I asked him to move off his comfortable circle and his head went up (this was at the trot). So we spent awhile trotting 10m circles in various places, staying on the circle until he did a full circle soft and mouthing then moving it. He got pretty good at that but then I had to drop to a walk because of the bunny tree. Got the soft chewing back by the bunny tree and so I started doing serpentines at the walk. He didn't try to come up even once and kept moving his mouth the entire time. So I dropped my reins from the 2nd rein stop to the 3rd. He stayed right out at the end of them and kept his head on the vertical even on the looser rein so I did that a couple times up and down the arena and then sent him out to the 4th stop, which worked for awhile but after 2 or 3 loops he'd start looking to come up. Doing the shoulder trick would send him right back and out though, so I came back up to the 3rd stop and worked some more there for a few minutes and then called it a day.
Question for the audience: Despite mouthing/chewing the bit for the last 20 min or so of the ride, there was no foam when I was done. His lips were wet, but not foaming. Does that mean he was only sort of relaxing his jaw or is it a non-sign? He was mouthing it sort of hard but he was so relaxed I don't think it was angry chewing, it was more like how babies will chew their bits trying to figure out what's going on.
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5 comments:
It sounds like you got a lot of work done!
As for the non-foamy mouth(zipping up suit) I would rather have a lot of chewing like you had and no foam. Foam means that your horse isn't swallowing. I would be willing to bet that if you had kept riding him at the 2nd stop and gotten all the chewing then you would have had foam because his throat would have been tighter but because you rode him one the 3rd stop he had more room and was still able to get soft and chew but was still able to swallow.
Ahh, ok, that makes sense I guess. I don't really see foam as a goal, I just was wondering if I'd misinterpreted his chewing since there wasn't any. Pro's annoyingly good at faking me out.
Pro, ever the challenge! It sounds like you ended on a good note, though!
Sounds like an excellent learning ride.
I haven't a clue about the foam thing, but Alex's explanation makes sense.
Interesting...I'm going to make a mental note to ask Gayle about the foam. I think a lot of the times he feels very happy, chewy, and I don't see foam...so maybe it's just his saliva production?? I've had foam and no foam after rides where he's felt the same chewy-wise, even lessons.
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